Ordu's Finest and Carefully Selected Hazelnuts
Hazelnuts are Ordu's green gold. They are the most valued agricultural product, and nearly all families own hectares of land.
Why choose Ocokoci?
At Ocokoci, we firmly believe that our world is a unique and interconnected living organism. Our well-being is intricately linked to each of its elements: from the soil to our health, thriving communities, exquisite taste, and beyond.
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While current agriculturel applications are growing more complex, it lost most of the respect to our communities and our Earth. Here we tell you the story of hazelnut...
The story of hazelnut
As we say, there is a story to tell in each shell...
01
A little bit of history
Hazelnuts are natural forest trees in the Black Sea Region. However, when these trees become the dominant species in the forest ecosystem, their fruiting rate slows down. It was in the 18th century that local farmers began changing their approach. Instead of allowing hazelnut trees to grow tall in the wild, they started cultivating them and implemented yearly pruning.
02
Pruning
Farmers started to perform yearly pruning and mow green grasses as part of their regular routines to enhance agricultiral productivity.
03
Loss of biodiversity
Over time, many farmers chose to have monocultural lands. They not only cut down forests to plant more hazelnut trees, but also selected the most productive subspecies of hazelnut and attempted to obtain a species with hazelnuts of the same size.
04
Relinquishing agricultural lands
Due to the presence of large hazelnut trading companies over time, the payment received by farmers has significantly decreased. As a result, many farmers have been compelled to abandon their land.
05
Pollution of lands and collapse of communities.
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Even though farmers may have relocated to big cities in search of better job opportunities, they still possessed their own lands. However, they began investing less time and energy into cultivating their land. In an attempt to reduce manual labor, they started using more agricultural toxins, resulting in detrimental effects on the environment. Consequently, the once strong farming community has been lost.
What is Ocokoci?
Ocokoci is a mythical forest monster. Its purpose is to safeguard the forest and its community. Whenever someone with malicious intentions comes close, the Ocokoci monster will retaliate. For generations, cutting down trees in the Black Sea region was strictly prohibited due to the fear instilled in the local population by this creature.
Revival of OCOKOCÄ°
Our CEO, İbrahim Kışla, is concerned about the well-being of both the land, farmers, and hazelnut cultivation, as well as natural history and biodiversity. Ensuring the best quality hazelnuts entails not only taking care of the soil, but also paying close attention to the entire production process, particularly post-harvesting procedures.
Preserving ecology and ecosystem
Farmers collaborating with Ocokoci receive support to care for the vitality and health of the soil, while polycultural farming policies are encouraged. They are not only supported in producing different subspecies of hazelnuts but also in cultivating a variety of agricultural vegetables, trees, and animals, with a strong emphasis on avoiding harm to forests.
Building Communities
Ocokoci aims to support and strengthen communities. Many farmers face challenging periods of production, harvesting, and delivering their products to clients or traders. Ocokoci provides assistance to farmers and ensures a sustainable production chain. Farmers collaborating with Ocokoci receive support to pay fair wages to daily agricultural workers, refrain from employing child workers, and are encouraged to adopt polycultural farming practices.
POST HARVEST CARE
"Not only Ordu, but the health of our world holds utmost importance. The most significant issue in hazelnut production is attributed to the farmers' insufficient time. They are compelled to return to big cities for their jobs, which results in inadequate drying of the hazelnut kernels and subsequently leads to the formation of mold on the hazelnuts."
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Ocokoci safeguards the dehydration process of the hazelnut kernel by not only supporting the farmers, but also by actively managing these processes within its own operations.
